I'd be cool if Lakers get Smith, he would solidify the defense and would possibly make the Lakers the best defensive team in the league.

Offensively, it would be a downgrade — He wants to take a jumper despite not born with the talent to shoot, can't be relied on the FT line, he has low IQ, he has attitude problems, he can't create for himself and his teammates, and he's already peaked a long time ago

but the Lakers would have another extra guy running

Pau's great and classy, I wish he would stay and remain a Laker, but his contract is a killer
Not to mention, he hasn't been utilized properly for the last 2 years, and it will most likely remain the same for the next 2 under D'Antoni.

Nonsense!His stats haven't been that great this season, but with a new system, the firing of Mike Brown and hiring of D'Antoni, this season have been a total mess so far. No wonder he is struggling a bit. By your logic, we should trade Nash as well, since he have been our second worst pg these first few games.According to 82games.com and Hoopdata, Pau is having a very solid year defensively, so your're wrong on that one too.Will he be an allstar - perhaps not, but if we start winning, he will certainly be close and easily could make the team.What can we get for him? Several teams have players who will become FAs next season: Millsap, Josh Smith and David West just to name a few. These teams may want to do business now, rather than lose their guy for nothing.

M pont is for 19+ mill he is not having even close to a solid year. A solid year for a 19+ mill is would have to be much higher. And that is complete nonsense that his defensive has been god. That coach nick guy who does a bunch of analysis of games even pointed out how bad he is playing defensively and that had nothing to do with scheme or coaching. It had to do with no effort not helping and not cover his man. I have not seen anything in these games to say that he his good on defense. You shouldn't go by defensive stats because other player like dwight howard are helping his stats.

The one thing we need to beat the Heat is size.
The reason why we won the last two championships was because nobody could match up with our size.
Keeping Pau gives us a huge size-advantage and his defense is underrated - sure he is no Kevin Garnett, but he isn't a traffic cone either.

The one thing we need to beat the Heat is size.The reason why we won the last two championships was because nobody could match up with our size.Keeping Pau gives us a huge size-advantage and his defense is underrated - sure he is no Kevin Garnett, but he isn't a traffic cone either.

The one thing we need to beat the Heat is size.The reason why we won the last two championships was because nobody could match up with our size.Keeping Pau gives us a huge size-advantage and his defense is underrated - sure he is no Kevin Garnett, but he isn't a traffic cone either.

Problem with Pau now is his size does nothing. His such a weak help defender and overall his defence is atrocious.

His size along with Howard will clog the lane and he is still a very good shot blocker. His biggest value is obviously on the offensive end.

The offense takes care of the offensive end for everyone.

He's got to rotate better so that Dwight can stay aggressive and create a shield at the rim. Pau just has to anticipate Dwight's moves and move to cover Dwight's man. Once he does that, the only pass that will be left will be one to the perimeter or to a cutter. That gives Dwight and the rest of the team time to rotate over.

How it should look is:

Dribble penetrationDwight challenges / Pau rotates over to cover Dwight's manBall kicked out to the same side wing OR top of the keyShot taken OR ball swung to opposite sidePau rotates back to cover his man / gets in position to challenge shot at rim off dribble penetrationDwight rotates back to his manShot taken or dribble penetrationPau challenges shot at rim / Dwight rotates over to cover Pau's man...

And so on and so forth...

You have 2 bigs like we've got and you HAVE to learn simple rotations at or near the rim. And that's only Pau/Dwight. We could spend a couple pages talking about what the rest of the team does to cover and recover in basic defensive schemes.

Pau has to trust his teammates...he's not fast but if he helps someone, someone will help him...right now, Dwight can't trust Pau to move his feet at all or help him in any way. Pau needs to rectify that or he can't be here.